This invention relates to machines for making sushi rolls.
A known machine for making sushi rolls, for example as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,208, has a foldable plate on which a rectangular frame can be placed to define a recess for receiving a layer of cooked rice. After removing the frame from the plate, and adding to the rice layer a filling such as meat or fish, the plate is folded to form the layer of rice into a sushi roll surrounding the filling. Such machines are limited in the range of volume of filling that can be satisfactorily included, and the invention aims to solve this problem.
According to the invention there is provided a machine for making sushi rolls, the machine comprising a foldable plate and wall means capable of occupying two different orientations with respect to the plate, in the first orientation the wall means defining a shallow recess for receiving a thinner layer of cooked rice on the plate, and in the second orientation the wall means defining a deep recess for receiving a thicker layer of cooked rice on the plate, so that after removal of the wall means from the plate the latter can be folded to form a sushi roll having a thinner or thicker layer of cooked rice. This enables the machine to produce sushi rolls with different bulks of filling (Maki) in the roll, because a thinner layer of rice layer will provide more space for fillings than a thicker rice layer.
The wall means may comprise a pair of shallow walls to define the shallow recess and a further pair of deeper walls to define the deeper recess. The shallow walls may form the mutually opposite walls of a shallow rectangular frame locatable on the plate and the deeper walls may form the mutually opposite walls of a deeper rectangular frame locatable on the plate. More preferably, however, the wall means comprise four walls defining a rectangular frame which is locatable on the plate in either one of two alternative positions, giving differing depths of recess to define said different orientations.
The four walls may be constituted by four elongate frame members, and the ends of the four frame members may have cooperating formations, such as projections and recesses, to facilitate assembly of the frame. The frame members, when separated from one another, may be grouped into a bundle which is capable of being accommodated within the folded plate, in order to provide a compact and neat storage of the frame members when the machine is not in use.
The machine may carry visual indicator means to indicate to the user which of the two alternative orientations is assumed by the wall means. For example, the plate may have a projection such as a spigot and the wall means may have two recesses one of which receives the spigot in one orientation of the wall means and the other of which receives the spigot in the other orientation of the wall means, the one recess carrying an indicator (such as a numeral representative of a small bulk of filling) and the other recess carrying an indicator (such as a numeral representative of a larger bulk of filling).
The machine may have two plates of different areas when unfolded, each being provided with its respective wall means, the smaller plate and associated wall means being used to make small sushi rolls (Hosomaki) and the larger plate and associated wall means being used to make large sushi rolls (Futomaki). By this means, a single machine can produce sushi rolls made from four different thicknesses of rice.
When the machine has two plates and two frames, the smaller folded plate preferably fits inside the larger folded plate with the wall members of both frames being locatable within the larger folded plate, to provide a compact assembly of the components of the machine when the latter is not in use. The machine preferably has a support base which carries the two folded plates with the wall members therewithin, each plate when unfolded being locatable on the support base.